6 Jan
2009
6 Jan
'09
6:07 a.m.
2009/1/6 Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>:
On Jan 5, 2009, at 5:37 PM, Henk Gooijen wrote:
Probably hard to justify the cost for occasional use, but I'd really
like to get one of these before I do myself any permanent damage:
http://www.edmolift.co.uk/lift_trolleys.htm [link to random supplier
of lift trolleys]
I reckon you could slide out your kit, then pump that thing up
underneath before undoing the screws. Replacement is the reverse of
the removal procedure, as they say.
--
Steve Maddison
http://www.cosam.org/
That is how my TU56 is hung in the H960 rack. You
need help to
mount the TU56. I did it alone, and remember that is was heavy
to do on my own, hanging the TU56 in the 5th 10.5" position,
counting from the bottom :-)
I did mine alone as well. It is definitely a very heavy machine. I had
back pains for days after doing that.
6 Jan
6 Jan
8:56 a.m.
On Jan 6, 2009, at 6:07 AM, Steve Maddison wrote:
Probably hard to justify the cost for occasional use, but I'd really
like to get one of these before I do myself any permanent damage:
http://www.edmolift.co.uk/lift_trolleys.htm [link to random supplier
of lift trolleys]
I reckon you could slide out your kit, then pump that thing up
underneath before undoing the screws. Replacement is the reverse of
the removal procedure, as they say.
I had one of those at work many years ago. I loved it. When I
achieve world domination, I'll buy one for myself. :-)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
That is how my TU56 is hung in the H960 rack. You need
help to
mount the TU56. I did it alone, and remember that is was heavy
to do on my own, hanging the TU56 in the 5th 10.5" position,
counting from the bottom :-)
I did mine alone as well. It is definitely a very heavy
machine. I had
back pains for days after doing that.
9:56 a.m.
On 06/01/2009 11:07, Steve Maddison wrote:
2009/1/6 Dave McGuire <mcguire at
neurotica.com>:
Someone else (maybe Jay) mentioned Genie Load Lifters on the list a few
years back, and I bought two of these for work -- they're perfect for
rackmount kit and fold up to take very little space when not in use.
http://www.genieindustries.com/ml-series/ml-1-2.asp
I think ours cost about UKP280 last time we bought one, and it's worth
every penny.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
On Jan 5, 2009, at 5:37 PM, Henk Gooijen wrote:
Probably hard to justify the cost for occasional use, but I'd really
like to get one of these before I do myself any permanent damage:
http://www.edmolift.co.uk/lift_trolleys.htm [link to random supplier
of lift trolleys] That is how my TU56 is hung in the H960 rack. You
need help to
mount the TU56. I did it alone, and remember that is was heavy
to do on my own, hanging the TU56 in the 5th 10.5" position,
counting from the bottom :-)
I did mine alone as well. It is definitely a very
heavy machine. I had
back pains for days after doing that. 
9:03 p.m.
On Tue, Jan 06, 2009 at 12:07:36PM +0100, Steve Maddison wrote:
I knew someone online (IRC) who had a finger amputated because a rack
dropped on it. As a pianist, this squicked me quite a bit.
I would highly recommend caution to anyone moving any heavy rack, don't
be stupid.
--
- db at FreeBSD.org db at db.net http://www.db.net/~db
2009/1/6 Dave McGuire <mcguire at
neurotica.com>:
> On Jan 5, 2009, at 5:37 PM, Henk Gooijen wrote:
...
I did mine
alone as well. It is definitely a very heavy machine. I had
back pains for days after doing that.
Probably hard to justify the cost for occasional use, but I'd really
like to get one of these before I do myself any permanent damage: 
7 Jan
7 Jan
12:03 a.m.
On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 9:03 PM, Diane Bruce <db at db.net> wrote:
I knew someone online (IRC) who had a finger amputated
because a rack
dropped on it. As a pianist, this squicked me quite a bit.
!!! I play piano, too, so I completely understand.
I would highly recommend caution to anyone moving any
heavy rack, don't
be stupid.
When I was younger (in high school), I had a couple of minor incidents
moving big DEC equipment - nothing requiring more than first aid, but
enough to keep me cautious. Now that I'm substantially older, I'm
eyeing that lift as an essential tool - most of my close calls have
come from hefting large things into racks - RK05s, RA81s, etc., though
I nearly crushed myself extracting an 11/750 from a Chevy Astro Van
once - fortunately for me, it wedged in the door opening and did not
slip more than a few inches, but it could have been much less
pleasant.
IIRC, Sridar has a story or two that, fortunately, I can't top.
-ethan
12:32 a.m.
On Jan 6, 2009, at 9:03 PM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
Having dropped an 11/780 off the back of a truck, I completely
understand. I've had an equipment lift (that I picked up second hand)
for a number of years now. Before I got it I was planning with
exacting detail how I wanted stuff racked up and wouldn't re-rack
stuff just because of the effort involved. Now it's almost too
easy! :-) I'm also considering getting a 2nd lift. My current lift
is of the counter weight variety (it has a 400lb cast iron weight on
the back) which makes it "inconvenient" to move between locations
(although I *have* done it). I consider the lift as one of my more
necessary pieces of equipment (since I found out about J-bars, that is
a close second - but only when I'm moving equipment).
TTFN - Guy
I would highly recommend caution to anyone moving
any heavy rack,
don't
be stupid.
When I was younger (in high school), I had a couple of minor incidents
moving big DEC equipment - nothing requiring more than first aid, but
enough to keep me cautious. Now that I'm substantially older, I'm
eyeing that lift as an essential tool - most of my close calls have
come from hefting large things into racks - RK05s, RA81s, etc., though
I nearly crushed myself extracting an 11/750 from a Chevy Astro Van
once - fortunately for me, it wedged in the door opening and did not
slip more than a few inches, but it could have been much less
pleasant.
12:39 a.m.
On Jan 7, 2009, at 12:03 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
IIRC, Sridar has a story or two that, fortunately, I
can't top.
Yeah, but most of Sridhar's stories involve his gear nearly
crushing ME! ;)
This is rather severely off-topic, as most of the machines
described are pretty new, but I recently offloaded some very heavy
gear from a truck onto my driveway by myself. I had no one upon whom
to call for assistance, and I was under great time pressure. Here's
the saga. (This is mostly a cut-and-paste from an email I sent to
Pat Finnegan about a month ago, as this stuff came from his facility.)
First came the StorageTek Timberwolf tape juke, being very large
and weighing about 700lbs. That's pretty light, compared to the rest
of the stuff. I wanted to unload it using the ramp, but the weight
coming down the ramp was far more than I could handle myself. I used
a ratchet strap hooked to the sides of the truck to lower it a notch
at a time. In the end, I ran out of strap and it started rolling on
its own, but it only went about eight inches before it was off the
ramp...so all was well. I removed all the tape carriers beforehand
in an effort to reduce the weight somewhat. I used pieces of wood as
safety catches behind the wheels.
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/TimberwolfUnload/PICT2103.JPG
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/TimberwolfUnload/PICT2104.JPG
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/TimberwolfUnload/PICT2105.JPG
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/TimberwolfUnload/PICT2106.JPG
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/TimberwolfUnload/PICT2107.JPG
Next came the Sun Fire 6800s, about 1200lbs/ea...and fragile,
expensive, and belonging to someone else. That's pressure. They
were laying down on their backs...I pushed, with great difficulty,
the rightmost machine off the end of the truck, "catching" it with a
ratchet strap configured in a loop of a reasonable length secured to
the top frame of the truck.
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/SF6800Unload/PICT2109.JPG
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/SF6800Unload/PICT2110.JPG
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/SF6800Unload/PICT2111.JPG
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/SF6800Unload/PICT2112.JPG
I lowered it a ratchet notch at a time until the rear/bottom
corner was on the driveway, then adjusted the angles a bit, then
lowered it onto its wheels.
The left machine was sitting across two pallets, and was far more
difficult due to wood-on-wood friction with the truck's floor. I
jacked the machine up one side at a time in order to remove all
remaining rear rack protrusions, then tied the rearmost pallet to one
of the between-the-garage-doors columns on my house. I then drove
the truck forward, an inch or so at a time, running back every time
to check on things, until the rearmost pallet was nearly off the truck.
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/SF6800Unload/PICT2120.JPG
I then lifted the bottom/rear of the rack up using a loop of
ratchet strap in order to remove the pallet.
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/SF6800Unload/PICT2121.JPG
After that, I lowered it to the ground with a ratchet strap in the
same manner as the first machine.
The E10K was the last to come off the truck. It was still
unbelievably heavy even after the removal of all hot-swappable
components...about 900lbs empty. It came down the ramp a ratchet
notch at a time in the same manner as the Timberwolf, but this time
my friend Ed came by to help, despite being sick. Here he is
striking a camped-up pose with the machine midway down the ramp:
http://www.neurotica.com/misc/SF6800Unload/PICT2122.JPG
So that was that, what a relief. That was a stressful few days,
with the bill for the extra truck rental time climbing ever
skyward...I was very worried that my new employer (it's their gear)
would be pissed about the extra expense, but he was cool with it,
seeing that I risked great bodily harm to move gear for the company
on short notice.
But it was fun. :)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
1:40 a.m.
From: mcguire at neurotica.com
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 00:39:23 -0500
To: cctech at classiccmp.org
CC:
Subject: Re: Lifting heavy rack-mount gear (was Re: PDP-8/e rack questions)
On Jan 7, 2009, at 12:03 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
... snip very nice story with lots of heavy cool pictures :-)
IIRC, Sridar has a story or two that,
fortunately, I can't top.
Yeah, but most of Sridhar's stories involve his gear nearly
crushing ME! ;)
This is rather severely off-topic, as most of the machines
described are pretty new, but I recently offloaded some very heavy
gear from a truck onto my driveway by myself But it was fun. :)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
Those machines were *just* small enough to go through the opening
(standing upright). I bet that you measured the height first!
Unloading a truck can be quite a task with this stuff. For that
reason I always rent a truck with a hydraulic tail (or what the
proper name is for it).
But when everythiong is unloaded, yes, the memories are fun.
- Henk.
9:51 a.m.
Henk Gooijen wrote:
Unloading a truck can be quite a task with this stuff.
For that
reason I always rent a truck with a hydraulic tail (or what the
proper name is for it).
We used to do that a lot for museum stuff - but the problem there is that some
of the bigger machine cabinets only fit on the tail-lift with an inch or so to
spare - we were always paranoid that one was going to just drop straight off
the back.
Ramps seem a bit better *if* you've got the necessary cables/straps to safely
cope with the distance/weight.
(I'm having the reverse to the unloading issue right now - we've got a huge
cabinet in the basement of our house that I want to get back up to ground
level, and working against gravity rather than with it is a major pain!)
cheers
Jules
10:07 a.m.
We used to do that a lot for museum stuff - but the
problem there is that
some of the bigger machine cabinets only fit on the tail-lift with an inch
or so to spare - we were always paranoid that one was going to just drop
straight off the back.
This can be scary, but there are a couple of tricks to use. One, if
the liftgate has chains that go up at an angle from the back of the
liftgate to a few feetup each side of the back of the truck, one can
stick a board or load brace across the liftgate platform just against
where the chains meet the platform. If the load starts to roll down
the platform, it will hit this and stop. Or, two, simply strap the
load down to the platform, all the way around, just remembering to
strap it so the latch is to the side and not pinned down when the
platform is on the ground.
Ramps seem a bit better *if* you've got the
necessary cables/straps to
safely cope with the distance/weight.
I never use ramps anymore, unless the load consists of small things.
And Dave REALLY needs to invest in some cumalongs.
--
Will
11:37 a.m.
On Jan 7, 2009, at 10:07 AM, William Donzelli wrote:
And Dave REALLY needs to invest in some cumalongs.
Yes, most definitely. This time, I was broke and out of time.
But, those ratchet straps worked surprisingly well for the oh-so-
wrong tasks I put them to!
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
11:38 a.m.
Not as dramatic as some other stories on this thread, I recall when I acquired my 11/34.
I'd specified a truck with a lift gate - and arrived at the rental agency (Enterprise
- to be avoided!) to find a ramp truck. The person from who I was acquiring the machine
(plus a dozen terminals and a boatload of documentation) was moving out of area and that
day was my only opportunity to do the pick-up, so I couldn't just reschedule.
When I picked up the machine, I was aided by its former owner and his father; the latter
gentleman had worked as a longshoreman and knew all the tricks. Plus, we were pushing
this six-foot rack (with the processor and two RK05 drives) UP the ramp. As it happened,
my brother-in-law was visiting that day and I drafted him to help me unload - which meant
bringing that six-foot rack DOWN the ramp. It wasn't pretty. Then, to get it up the
two steps from my garage into my basement, we laid it over on its back and slid it, then
stood it up again. I wonder why my brother-in-law rarely visits anymore? :-) -- Ian
________________________________________
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of
Jules Richardson [jules.richardson99 at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 6:51 AM
To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Lifting heavy rack-mount gear (was Re: PDP-8/e rack questions)
Henk Gooijen wrote:
Unloading a truck can be quite a task with this stuff.
For that
reason I always rent a truck with a hydraulic tail (or what the
proper name is for it).
We used to do that a lot for museum stuff - but the problem there is that some
of the bigger machine cabinets only fit on the tail-lift with an inch or so to
spare - we were always paranoid that one was going to just drop straight off
the back.
Ramps seem a bit better *if* you've got the necessary cables/straps to safely
cope with the distance/weight.
(I'm having the reverse to the unloading issue right now - we've got a huge
cabinet in the basement of our house that I want to get back up to ground
level, and working against gravity rather than with it is a major pain!)
cheers
Jules
12:19 p.m.
Not as dramatic as some other stories on this thread,
I recall when I acquired my 11/34. I'd specified a truck with a lift gate - and
arrived at the rental agency (Enterprise - to be avoided!) to find a ramp truck.
The basic rule of thumb is not to be cheap with rental trucks. Pretty
much avoid all of the consumer grade deals (Uhaul, Enterprise, etc.)
and go straight for the commercial deals. The pricing schemes are a
little different (sometimes less!), and you have to show that you are
a business with some sort of official looking business paper to sign
up, but pretty much everything is in tip top condition with no
screwups. I use Ryder Commercial Services, and have been very pleased.
--
Will
7:27 p.m.
In article <e1d20d630901070919y684d8017mafb55b020d82af06 at mail.gmail.com>,
"William Donzelli" <wdonzelli at gmail.com> writes:
The basic rule of thumb is not to be cheap with rental
trucks. Pretty
much avoid all of the consumer grade deals (Uhaul, Enterprise, etc.)
and go straight for the commercial deals. [...]
I use Ryder Commercial Services, and have been very pleased.
I have used Penske to move a bunch of SGI gear from St. Louis to Salt
Lake City and was very pleased.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
7:25 p.m.
In article <FF6AB92D97A23A409701CDBF66F03FCD2A56EDC5 at 505fuji>,
Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> writes:
[acquiring an 11/34] (plus a dozen terminals and a
boatload of
documentation) [...]
OK, I gotta ask, what kind of terminals? :-)
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
10:05 p.m.
A bunch of ADM-3As and a few VT-52s. Most of the latter were in various stages of
decomposition; one of the few working ones went to the Wofford Witch project. (I now wish
I'd kept it....)
________________________________________
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of
Richard [legalize at xmission.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 4:25 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Lifting heavy rack-mount gear (was Re: PDP-8/e rack questions)
In article <FF6AB92D97A23A409701CDBF66F03FCD2A56EDC5 at 505fuji>,
Ian King <IanK at vulcan.com> writes:
[acquiring an 11/34] (plus a dozen terminals and a
boatload of
documentation) [...]
OK, I gotta ask, what kind of terminals? :-)
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
11:31 a.m.
On Jan 7, 2009, at 1:40 AM, Henk Gooijen wrote:
Thanks! These didn't actually have anything to do with Sridhar,
despite the context...should've mentioned that earlier.
On Jan 7,
2009, at 12:03 AM, Ethan Dicks wrote:
... snip very nice story with lots of heavy cool pictures :-) IIRC, Sridar has a story or two that,
fortunately, I can't top.
Yeah, but most of Sridhar's stories involve his gear nearly
crushing ME! ;)
This is rather severely off-topic, as most of the machines
described are pretty new, but I recently offloaded some very heavy
gear from a truck onto my driveway by myself Those machines were *just* small enough to go through
the opening
(standing upright). I bet that you measured the height first!
Unloading a truck can be quite a task with this stuff. For that
reason I always rent a truck with a hydraulic tail (or what the
proper name is for it).
But when everythiong is unloaded, yes, the memories are fun.
I neglected to mention that I flew from Florida to Chicago to pick
up that truck as a one-way rental, and the people in Chicago gave me
a rear door height measurement that was inaccurate by about six
inches. Pat and I were quite pissed to find that the truck was
actually too short to accommodate the Sun Fire 6800s, and we had to
lay them down. The other gear (including the E10K) is shorter,
though, and that stuff did fit.
Also, I was unable to find a truck with a lift gate for a one-way
rental, so this was the only real option. The upside is, now I look
like a god to my new employer. ;) He has moved a lot of very high-
end gear so he knows the difficulties involved.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
2:31 a.m.
Nice pictures, they make me feel like a total amateur having "only"
moved a 11/70 (two cabinets) and a Alphaserver(one cabinet). And in both
cases used a truck with a lift.
between-the-garage-doors columns on my house. I then
drove the truck
forward, an inch or so at a time, running back every time to check on
things, until the rearmost pallet was nearly off the truck.
neat trick :) scary one too.
The E10K was the last to come off the truck. It was
still
unbelievably heavy even after the removal of all hot-swappable
I was not participating myself, but heard some scary stories from when
the computer club moved a E10K into the server room. I allways giggle
when I see the two very visible dents in the sill from the E10K wheels.
Cheers,
Pontus.
11:34 a.m.
On Jan 7, 2009, at 2:31 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
Yes, I was worried for a while. I laughed aloud when it was done,
though. I must've looked like a nut...standing there in my driveway
all alone, soaked with sweat, surrounded by a few $mil worth of huge
computers, laughing..
They certainly leave their mark! :-)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
Nice pictures, they make me feel like a total amateur
having "only"
moved a 11/70 (two cabinets) and a Alphaserver(one cabinet). And in
both
cases used a truck with a lift.
Those lifts are nice sometimes, but they are not without their
problems. Most of them have a very steep ramp of about 3-4" at the
very edge that big racks have trouble with. Also, they "jerk" when
motion starts...cranking down the racks' feet or strapping them down
is a must.
between-the-garage-doors columns on my house. I then drove the truck
forward, an inch or so at a time, running back every time to check on
things, until the rearmost pallet was nearly off the truck.
neat trick :) scary one too. The E10K was
the last to come off the truck. It was still
unbelievably heavy even after the removal of all hot-swappable
I was not participating myself, but heard some scary stories from when
the computer club moved a E10K into the server room. I allways giggle
when I see the two very visible dents in the sill from the E10K
wheels.
12:03 p.m.
2009/1/7 Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>:
On Jan 7, 2009, at 2:31 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
It's either that or, like I had last time, the lift itself is
essentially one big ramp. Having successfully rolled two H960s off the
truck alone, I figured I'd finally had an "event-free" haul.
Unfortunately the kit in the third and final rack was heavier than the
other two combined... I ended up resorting to a variant on that
ratchet strap method to slowly inch the thing down the lift/ramp to
level-ish ground. I know it can't have been that long ago as the
lovely maroon reminder under my big toe nail still hasn't grown out
yet ;-)
--
Steve Maddison
http://www.cosam.org/
Nice pictures, they make me feel like a total
amateur having "only"
moved a 11/70 (two cabinets) and a Alphaserver(one cabinet). And in both
cases used a truck with a lift.
Those lifts are nice sometimes, but they are not without their problems.
Most of them have a very steep ramp of about 3-4" at the very edge that big
racks have trouble with.
2:50 p.m.
On Wed, Jan 07, 2009 at 11:34:23AM -0500, Dave McGuire wrote:
On Jan 7, 2009, at 2:31 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote:
>Nice pictures, they make me feel like a total amateur having "only"
...
Well, in a pinch I suppose a piece of rope could take the place of a
belt like the professionals use. I simply wanted to make sure no one
here lost a finger. I suppose there is a proper professional name for
those belts? ;-) I'd use some 2x4 and some very strong rope instead of
putting my fingers under a rack.
>I was not participating myself, but heard some
scary stories from when
>the computer club moved a E10K into the server room. I allways giggle
>when I see the two very visible dents in the sill from the E10K
>wheels.
I suppose I shouldn't mention the night I helped a friend move some
old computer rack into his basement apartment at 2am. I bet there are
still pieces of missing concrete, from the steps on those stairs as we
dropped the rack step by step... (*WHAM* *WHAM*)
They certainly leave their mark! :-)
Really? :-)
-Dave
- Diane
--
- db at FreeBSD.org db at db.net http://www.db.net/~db
3:02 p.m.
New subject: SGI Visualisation Systems... Good for Maya and what else?
I have a small SGI collection (a dozen and counting, including the Onyx2,
Origin 2000 rack and rack Onyx 10000) and, to be honest, I mostly collect
them because... well, they look cool, and when I was in a position where I
couldn't collect (a. New Zealand, b. No space) I drooled over them.
I was asked recently what my Onyx rack was good for. And it occurred to me
beyond the easy answer of "running Maya"... I wasn't really sure. So, if
you used one of these bigger machines in production (particularly the
Onyx, Onyx2, etc graphics "Visualisation" systems)... I'd sure love to
know what -you- used it for.
(Both of my Onyxes came from Boeing, the rack has a rather wicked looking
custom built VME card... but I've got no clue what it was really used for)
Thanks all;
- JP
3:44 p.m.
New subject: SGI Visualisation Systems... Good for Maya and what else?
JP Hindin wrote:
I have a small SGI collection (a dozen and counting,
including the Onyx2,
Origin 2000 rack and rack Onyx 10000) and, to be honest, I mostly collect
them because... well, they look cool, and when I was in a position where I
couldn't collect (a. New Zealand, b. No space) I drooled over them.
Weta Digital in NZ had *masses* of SGI kit - wandering around their machine
room was fun. I wonder if it's still all there... probably been ditched for a
load of PCs by now :-(
I'd love a big SGI - Indy/Indigo/4D machines seem reasonably plentiful (for
purchase+shipping costs at least) but the big stuff seems pretty rare (&
uneconomical to move long distances)
cheers
Jules
4:02 p.m.
New subject: SGI Visualisation Systems... Good for Maya and what else?
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009, Jules Richardson wrote:
JP Hindin wrote:
I lived about 5 minutes from Camperdown where Weta lived. (I actually
lived in the same suburb as Peter Jackson, so I saw him weekly at the
shops and stuff)
Curious you mention them. I only ever remember seeing O2s, Indigo2s and
similar (many moons ago, mind you). From recollection they only ever used
1U PCs for their renderwall. I'm sure that'd been replaced by blades now.
I don't remember seeing any big SGIs... but that is hardly conclusive.
I have a small SGI collection (a dozen and
counting, including the Onyx2,
Origin 2000 rack and rack Onyx 10000) and, to be honest, I mostly collect
them because... well, they look cool, and when I was in a position where I
couldn't collect (a. New Zealand, b. No space) I drooled over them.
Weta Digital in NZ had *masses* of SGI kit - wandering around their machine
room was fun. I wonder if it's still all there... probably been ditched for a
load of PCs by now :-( I'd love a big SGI - Indy/Indigo/4D machines seem
reasonably plentiful (for
purchase+shipping costs at least) but the big stuff seems pretty rare (&
uneconomical to move long distances)
I'm unsure where you're at - but I picked all of mine up from the Boeing
surplus in Missouri. They're selling them cheaper than dirt... (how about
a pallet of four Onyx2 desksides for $25? Or an Origin3000 for $100?)
- JP
5:07 p.m.
New subject: SGI Visualisation Systems... Good for Maya and what else?
JP Hindin wrote:
Middle of Minnesota - there's absolutely nothing up here that needs anything
more powerful than an office with a few PCs in it, sadly. I'm not even sure
what there might be down in Minneapolis - it's not exactly heavy computing
territory (although of course 3M have their roots here, so maybe there are
still a few gems tucked away down that way)
cheers
Jules
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009, Jules Richardson wrote:
Well I went to see them there circa 2000 - their machine room was *full* of
dual-height racks with mostly O2k systems, plus a few cabs of graphics
hardware (although I don't recall exactly what now) and others just stuffed
with disks. I don't remember what they had for desktop systems now, whether
those were SGI or just stock PCs...
There was definitely no PC renderfarm at that point in time.
Oh, ISTR that NIWA had some SGI stuff alongside their Cray at their Wellington
site, too - I suspect that might still be there as most people investing in
anything that requires a Cray probably hang onto it for a while :-)
JP Hindin wrote:
I lived about 5 minutes from Camperdown where Weta lived. (I actually
lived in the same suburb as Peter Jackson, so I saw him weekly at the
shops and stuff)
Curious you mention them. I only ever remember seeing O2s, Indigo2s and
similar (many moons ago, mind you). From recollection they only ever used
1U PCs for their renderwall. I'm sure that'd been replaced by blades now.
I don't remember seeing any big SGIs... but that is hardly conclusive. I have a small SGI collection (a dozen and
counting, including the Onyx2,
Origin 2000 rack and rack Onyx 10000) and, to be honest, I mostly collect
them because... well, they look cool, and when I was in a position where I
couldn't collect (a. New Zealand, b. No space) I drooled over them.
Weta
Digital in NZ had *masses* of SGI kit - wandering around their machine
room was fun. I wonder if it's still all there... probably been ditched for a
load of PCs by now :-( I'd love a
big SGI - Indy/Indigo/4D machines seem reasonably plentiful (for
purchase+shipping costs at least) but the big stuff seems pretty rare (&
uneconomical to move long distances)
I'm unsure where you're at - but I picked all of mine up from the Boeing
surplus in Missouri. They're selling them cheaper than dirt... (how about
a pallet of four Onyx2 desksides for $25? Or an Origin3000 for $100?) 
8 Jan
8 Jan
12:05 p.m.
New subject: SGI Visualisation Systems... Good for Maya and what else?
On Wednesday (01/07/2009 at 04:07PM -0600), Jules Richardson wrote:
well, ah... inspite of the rumors of our death being greatly exaggerated,
some of us do still work at SGI... in Minnesota... Eagan to be exact.
There is a room full of O2K and O3K (and newer stuff of course) directly
behind my office. They're powered on and running...
Chris
--
Chris Elmquist
mailto:chrise at pobox.com
I'm unsure where you're at - but I picked all of mine up from the Boeing
surplus in Missouri. They're selling them cheaper than dirt... (how about
a pallet of four Onyx2 desksides for $25? Or an Origin3000 for $100?)
Middle of Minnesota - there's absolutely nothing up here that needs
anything more powerful than an office with a few PCs in it, sadly. I'm not
even sure what there might be down in Minneapolis - it's not exactly heavy
computing territory (although of course 3M have their roots here, so maybe
there are still a few gems tucked away down that way)
9 Jan
9 Jan
8:45 a.m.
New subject: SGI Visualisation Systems... Good for Maya and what else?
Chris Elmquist wrote:
well, ah... inspite of the rumors of our death being
greatly exaggerated,
some of us do still work at SGI... in Minnesota... Eagan to be exact.
There is a room full of O2K and O3K (and newer stuff of course) directly
behind my office. They're powered on and running...
Hey, let me know when they're powered off and available ;)
Seriously, do you know what the disposal deal is there? I used to know a
couple of 'tame' employees at SGI in the UK, but the policy there was that any
surplus (regardless of source / age / condition) was rendered inoperative and
then tossed in a dumspter to be hauled off for crushing.
I never did try prodding SGI in a museum capacity, but they certainly didn't
want any Great Unwashed computer collectors knocking on their door. Maybe
that's not company-wide policy though, so the Eagan site's better...
cheers
Jules
7 Jan
7 Jan
7:29 p.m.
New subject: SGI Visualisation Systems... Good for Maya and what else?
In article <Pine.LNX.4.44.0901071457290.22563-100000 at pinhead.binfone.com>,
JP Hindin <jplist2008 at kiwigeek.com> writes:
I'm unsure where you're at - but I picked all
of mine up from the Boeing
surplus in Missouri. They're selling them cheaper than dirt... (how about
a pallet of four Onyx2 desksides for $25? Or an Origin3000 for $100?)
That's where I got mine too :-). The guy from Boeing was very helpful
during loadout, too.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
7:35 p.m.
New subject: SGI Visualisation Systems... Good for Maya and what else?
In article <Pine.LNX.4.44.0901071358220.22563-100000 at pinhead.binfone.com>,
JP Hindin <jplist2008 at kiwigeek.com> writes:
I was asked recently what my Onyx rack was good for.
And it occurred to me
beyond the easy answer of "running Maya"... I wasn't really sure. So, if
you used one of these bigger machines in production (particularly the
Onyx, Onyx2, etc graphics "Visualisation" systems)... I'd sure love to
know what -you- used it for.
The University of Utah was using these until recently for high-end
visualization. Boeing most likely used them for flight simulator type
uses like the F-15 built by McDonnell Douglasi (Boeing absorbed them
in 1997).
SGI machines still beat out PCs on I/O bandwidth and some other
qualities, so these large O2K or O3K machines are not without current
commercial users. However, PCs and the Cell broadband engine are
giving them a run for their money and its much more cost effective to
use more compact equipment for these things. Only certain
applications where the I/O and timing guarantees are important make
sense for the big SGI iron anymore. Of course, SGI has completely
abandoned that market anyway, so you'd be using these machines in
'legacy' mode these days and preparing some sort of replacement setup
for when they die.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
8 Jan
8 Jan
2:10 p.m.
New subject: SGI Visualisation Systems... Good for Maya and what else?
On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 6:35 PM, Richard <legalize at xmission.com> wrote:
In article <Pine.LNX.4.44.0901071358220.22563-100000 at pinhead.binfone.com>,
JP Hindin <jplist2008 at kiwigeek.com> writes:
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
abandoned the visualization market? http://www.sgi.com/vue/ it looks like
they are back in, and according to the top corner, using the full old logo,
which says "silicon graphics" again
I was asked recently what my Onyx rack was good
for. And it occurred to
me
beyond the easy answer of "running
Maya"... I wasn't really sure. So, if
you used one of these bigger machines in production (particularly the
Onyx, Onyx2, etc graphics "Visualisation" systems)... I'd sure love to
know what -you- used it for.
The University of Utah was using these until recently for high-end
visualization. Boeing most likely used them for flight simulator type
uses like the F-15 built by McDonnell Douglasi (Boeing absorbed them
in 1997).
SGI machines still beat out PCs on I/O bandwidth and some other
qualities, so these large O2K or O3K machines are not without current
commercial users. However, PCs and the Cell broadband engine are
giving them a run for their money and its much more cost effective to
use more compact equipment for these things. Only certain
applications where the I/O and timing guarantees are important make
sense for the big SGI iron anymore. Of course, SGI has completely
abandoned that market anyway, so you'd be using these machines in
'legacy' mode these days and preparing some sort of replacement setup
for when they die.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html<http://www.xmission.com/%7Elegalize/book/download/index.html>
10 Jan
10 Jan
5:46 p.m.
New subject: SGI Visualisation Systems... Good for Maya and what else?
In article <ce6937780901081110r278bbcceh7345110c2062cf29 at mail.gmail.com>,
"joe lobocki" <jlobocki at gmail.com> writes:
abandoned the visualization market?
http://www.sgi.com/vue/ it looks like
they are back in, and according to the top corner, using the full old logo,
which says "silicon graphics" again
Well, I have no idea what's on that page because it tries loading some
sort of "experience" and sits there at 1%.
The market they abandoned was custom graphics architecture based hardware
for visualization. Whatever they do now, I'm sure its a POPC machine
with an NVidia card in it.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html>
Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>
7 Jan
7 Jan
6:38 a.m.
On Wed, 2009-01-07 at 00:03 -0500, Ethan Dicks wrote:
When I was younger (in high school), I had a couple of
minor incidents
moving big DEC equipment - nothing requiring more than first aid, but
enough to keep me cautious. Now that I'm substantially older, I'm
eyeing that lift as an essential tool - most of my close calls have
When I was moving house, I went to load my PDP11/73 onto the van with
all the drives racked up. It was a bit heavier than I expected, but it
was just a case of rolling it up to the back of the van and then lifting
it in as I tipped it backwards. Getting it up two steps at the back
door of my new place wasn't as much fun.
Oh, and let's not forget the Fujitsu Eagle which has a sticker on it
saying "CAUTION: 70kg" - on the bottom! A few years ago I used to carry
around 25kg bags of horse feed three at a time. I'm so unfit these
days. I should ditch all this computer nonsense and go back to working
on a farm...
Gordon
5672
days inactive
5676
days old
31 comments
16 participants
participants (16)
-
chrise＠pobox.com -
db＠db.net -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
ggs＠shiresoft.com -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net -
henk.gooijen＠hotmail.com -
IanK＠vulcan.com -
jlobocki＠gmail.com -
jplist2008＠kiwigeek.com -
jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
legalize＠xmission.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
pete＠dunnington.plus.com -
pontus＠Update.UU.SE -
steve＠cosam.org -
wdonzelli＠gmail.com